1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to auto-parking, and particularly to an auto-parking device, wherein an image acquisition unit (e.g. camera) and a range sensing unit (e.g. ultrasonic sensor) are used to aware the surrounding situation of the vehicle itself, a processing unit can program a parking path despite the initial position of the car.
2. Description of Related Art
Driving a car has become an integral part of modern life and thus parking is also an unavoidable maneuver in driving. However, most of the parking places are not so wide that the driver can park a car comfortably and easily. In most cases, the parking space is only slightly greater than the size of the car. Thus the parking operation often includes a series of repeated actions for moving forwards, backwards, leftwards and rightwards, such that the whole process would become tedious and difficult for drivers in particular novices.
Moreover, according to the statistics, careless collisions occur frequently during the parking maneuver. Although most of cars are coated with paint, the paint is vulnerable and easy to be damaged by the collision. Even a light collision will make the paint peel off and thus lead the metal substrate to readily get rusted. Subsequently, the driver will be burdened with a big expense on repairing and repainting. Hence, developing an auto-parking device that can adapt intelligently to variable circumstances and avoid undesired collisions is the goal many automotive companies are striving toward.
In one prior art patent, “car reversing auto-parking system”, a car body is installed with a displacement detection device, an obstacle detection device, a microcomputer, etc. for deriving an auto-parking path so as to achieve the object of auto parking.
However, the prior art simply provides a fixed parking path. That is, in the beginning, the driver must stop the car at a specific position for performing the function of auto-parking. Therefore, the auto-parking ability proposed in the prior art is not only limited but also inflexible to the variation of the environment such that the driver may often have to park the car by himself (or herself).
Furthermore, although some other prior arts propose similar devices for automatic car reversing, an integral design including precise space detection by fusion of image and range sensing, as well as adaptive parking path planning has not been seen in these literatures. Hence, there is a necessity for a novel design which can improve the prior art deficiency.